Hendrik Willem Mesdag Dutch, 1831-1915

Family of the artist, thence by descent
Private collection

Hendrik Willem Mesdag was one of the key members of the Hague School, a movement that swept Dutch painting in the last quarter of the 19th century. He was born into a wealthy Groningen family and destined to become a banker. After an inheritance had rendered him financially independent, Mesdag abandoned his secure position at the bank and followed his artistic ambitions. He turned to his cousin Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema for advice, who suggested to serve his apprenticeship with Willem Roelofs, the famous Dutch landscapist who was based in Brussels. Accordingly, Mesdag stayed in Brussels for four years. Under Roelofs' guidance he adopted a broad, distinctive style of painting and grew familiar with the art of the Barbizon School, sharing a fascination for painting en plein air.

During a visit to the island of Norderney, in the summer of 1868, Mesdag got fascinated by the sea. His conception of the sea surprised many of his artist-friends. Contrary to the minutely detailed seascapes of the Romantic School, Mesdag's 'brutal realism' shook the Dutch art world. His unbiased depiction of the sea, straight from nature, was a new phenomenon, creating a new standard for Dutch painting.

In 1869 Mesdag settled in The Hague, which enabled him to work on the sands of Scheveningen, studying the sea in all its aspects, from quiet serenity to wild fury. A year later he scored a huge success at the Paris Salon with 'Les brisants de la mer du nord'. This large seascape was applauded by J.F. Millet and Felix Ziem, members of the jury, who rewarded it with a gold medal. This remarkable fact immediately established Mesdag's reputation. From then on he gained international recognition and became one the best selling artists of his time.  

The present lot was painted in 1875, the same year the Hague School was launched in Holland. In an influential article on the Hague School, the art cirtic J. van Santen Kolff characterised Mesdag's work as 'an impression of the poetry of nature that is so powerful that for as long as one is sunk in contemplation before his superb work, one is actually hearing the breakers swishing, foaming, thundering' (quoted from De Banier, 1875). No better way to describe the impression this painting gives us. The present lot shows the qualities that would earn Mesdag his greatest fame: from the broad, vigorous brushwork to the tonal power and the ability to capture man's eternal struggle against the powerful forces of nature. In that sense this unique painting, which stayed in the family of the artist for a long time, establishes what mrs. Marius wrote in her influential book Dutch Painters of the Nineteenth Century (1908):  'Hendrik Willem Mesdag came with his direct, realistic point of view, to surprise the world with the fact that the unbiased painting of the sea, straight from nature, was not only possible, but even so desirable that the aspects of the North Sea were now for the first time, in the nineteenth century, represented as they appear before our eyes'.

Mr. J. Poort has confirmed the authenticity of the present lot. It will be recorded by the Mesdag Documentatie Stichting under no. 1875.10.